lunedì 20 febbraio 2012

US AIRLINES WOES

Q: The question in On the Spot about Greece's ability to weather
its financial crisis prompts this question
about the consequences of American Airlines' bankruptcy: Two months
ago, I bought a round-trip ticket from L.A. to New York City on American
for next month. Now I hear that American will slash thousands of jobs
and restructure, so is it likely that hundreds of flights will be
canceled and I will be forced to wait at airports for hours?

-D. Tulanian, Los Angeles

A: If you're forced to wait hours at airports, the culprit may be
the weather, not American's fiscal problems - at least, not in the near
term.

American wants to cut about 13,000 jobs - including as many as
2,300 flight attendants and as many as 400 pilots. But don't assume, as I
did, that cutbacks in personnel mean cutbacks in schedule; that's
adding two and two and getting five, Mary Frances Fagan, an American
representative, told me. If unions will make concessions on work rules,
existing workers may be able to fill in the gaps left by laid-off
workers, she said. Result: no schedule cutbacks.

Whether
that's best for American's workers - and American's customers - is
unclear, but flight attendants will work hard to keep business struggles
out of the cabin, said Laura Glading, president of the Assn. of
Professional Flight Attendants, which represents the 17,000 flight
attendants at American Airlines. "If American has done one thing right
in the last 50 years, it's that they have hired incredible people, proud
people, who are resilient," she said.

And they must be in
these tough times for airlines, as fuel prices creep upward and
consumers often choose their airline based on low fares rather than
quality of service. When price and service intersect, it's traveler
nirvana, but with American, that hasn't always been the case, some say.
"American has not provided a stellar experience, so why would anyone pay
extra for a ticket?" said Grant Cardone, an author and frequent flier
who stars in "Turnaround King," a National Geographic Channel reality
show in which he advises businesses on how to make things work. It's not
just American, he added. "If I fly coach on some of the majors and you
ask for a glass of water, you feel like you asked somebody to take your
dog out at 35,000 feet."

Whither, then, American? It seems to
have missed the merger mania that allowed Delta to take on Northwest
and United to blend with Continental, and there's some thought that the
government, worried about whittling down competition, won't be quite as
willing to bless another merger.

American's best bet, said
James Brock, professor of economics at the Farmer School of Business at
Miami University in Ohio, may be to become smaller, not larger. "They
have the potential to be a very sleek, slimmed-down, competitive
airline," Brock said. "American can be one of the last, best hopes for
competition in the domestic market."

In other words, the new
Southwest, which always has had a different model for running an
airline. If American gives Southwest a run for its money, the result may
be lower ticket prices and a flying experience that's differentiated by
customer service.

Putting the comfort of the person who pays
ahead of the comfort of the person who's being paid? Now there's an
experience every leisure traveler - who doesn't fly first class and
doesn't necessarily have elite frequent-flier status - can get behind.